Former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Monday insinuated that his successor Binyamin Netanyahu was an “idiot” and that his predecessor Ariel Sharon was revered only after lapsing into a coma.
“In times of peace, even an idiotic prime minister can come out looking good,” he said during a lecture at Hebrew University on Monday.
“Of course, an idiot prime minister cannot make peace, and if he makes peace he’s not an idiot,” after the audience laughed at his veiled tongue-in-cheek reference to Netanayhu, Olmert was quick to backtrack and added, “I mean that only generally, of course. Really!”
The Prime Minister's office declined to respond to Olmert's comments.
Olmert made the reference while trying to explain the difference between a prime minister’s reputation in a time of war versus a time of peace in a lecture entitled "Media Challenges of Prime Ministers in Times of War and Terror."
He spoke as Sharon’s medical condition, after lying unconscious, has turned critical and friends and family members fear that he is close to death.
Olmert, who took over the premiership when Sharon had a cerebral hemorrhage on January 4, 2006, acknowledged the outpouring of sympathy the public has devoted to the former prime minister.
“Today, there is a understandable sense of empathy and sympathy toward what he and his family are going through. This eight-year-long saga of his kids visiting him every day is a humanitarian story.”
His sympathy though, was undercut by his claim that the public only began to revere Sharon when he entered a coma.
“When did the [public] begin to love Sharon?” he asked. “When he went into a coma."
While much of Olmert’s speech was devoted to lessons learned vis-à-vis media coverage during the Second Lebanon War, Olmert also took the time to discuss the current peace process.
Asserting that peace with the Palestinians is not only of the utmost importance, it is also very possible, he said, “If we carry out a peace deal and it’s not up to me, it’s up to the current government.”
“The entire Middle East landscape will change as well as Israel’s standing in the region. If we make peace with the Palestinians, it will cause a surge of change that will alter the entire region. We’ll become the center of the Middle East and people will invest academically and economically in us. The region will be much more successful and stable if the peace deal happens,” he added.
Olmert also defended his leadership during the controversial Second Lebanon War.
Acknowledging the criticism launched against Israel’s conduct during that war, Olmert said, “ever since that war we haven’t experienced this much quiet along the Lebanese border. We’ve had 7.5 years without retaliation from Hezbollah.”
Referencing his own personal friendship with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Olmert stated that he supports Kerry’s tireless efforts to broker peace with the Palestinians and agreed with Kerry’s stance that it is possible to forge a deal now that ensures Israel’s security and maintains its status as both a Jewish and Democratic state.